We remain hopeful that the conference will go on as planned in November. Given the fact that so many of us are transitioning to a new normal (working from home, social distancing, closed schools and daycares, etc.), we have extended the proposal deadline to April 30, 2020.

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2020 Call for Proposals

Deadline: Thursday, April 30, 2020

As we both celebrate 100 years of women receiving the right to vote and call attention to the fact that suffrage has not been applied equally to all women, organizers of the C.D. Wright Women Writers Conference look forward to gathering in the wake of the 2020 election to call for a greater platform for women’s voices in public discourse and government. We will need to re-evaluate and reset our priorities, and as women-identifying writers we will support each other as we discuss how writers, publishers, readers, and educators can best engage the issues of this moment.

The C.D. Wright Women Writers Conference invites proposals for presentations at our annual conference to be held November 6–7, 2020, at the University of Central Arkansas.​Inspired by C. D. Wright’s legacy, our mission is to recognize, promote, and encourage a diverse range of women writers, including any writer who identifies as female. We value the opportunity to develop an intersectional community that includes African American and Black, Latinx and Chicanx, Asian American, disabled, LGBTQ and non-binary, immigrant, native, rural, and resource-poor women writers.

Participants will explore opportunities, challenges, and trends specific to women writers through keynote presentations, panel discussions, creative readings, craft talks, a book fair, and workshops led by contemporary authors. The conference will offer writers a space to gather for inspiration, further education, support, and networking.

General InformationSessions will be 75 minutes and may employ a variety of formats, including panel and roundtable discussions, creative readings, or workshops. We encourage group proposal submissions but will also consider individual submissions. Individual proposals that are accepted will be grouped into panels by the conference organizers. Only one proposal submission is allowed per person; participants can present only once during the conference.

Suggested Presentation TopicsThe C. D. Wright Women Writers Conference is a space to celebrate, study, and advance the work of women writing in all genres. We will address the value of adding women’s voices to the collective, cultural conversations about writing and the danger of limiting or excluding these voices.

Possible topics for proposals may include the following:

Writing for public discourse and as a political act

Historicizing women writers and movements

Creative readings by women-identifying writers

Navigating the publishing industry as a woman

Identifying challenges faced by women writers, particularly in the South